HOW THE SOFTWARE WORKS

1. FORUM: Any member can start a discussion topic in FORUM, and any member can comment. This area is for discussions which might be of interest to all members, general discussions.

GROUPS VS FORUM: Under the GROUPS tab you must be a member of that group to comment and ask questions. The FORUMS tab allows any laceioli member to participate.

2. The GROUPS tab is for members with specific interests to comment and ask questions about them, such as, torchon, Bedfordshire, embroidered net, lace identification.

To join a group: go to the group you want to join. Look in upper right hand quadrant of screen and click on +JOIN. And you are in! Any member can join a group, but you have to join before you can post comments. (That's just the way the software works, I can't change it.)

Once you are inside a GROUP there is a DISCUSSION FORUM for that group. You can only find that collection of discussions when you are in that group's section. The DISCUSSION FORUM within a group is for discussions specifically pertinent to the subject matter of that group. These are not duplicates of the discussions in the FORUM tab. DISCUSSIONS in the FORUM tab can be accessed from any page in our network. DISCUSSIONS in a particular group can only be accessed from inside that group. Anyone can view discussions and comments, but only group members can post comments.

3. To start a discussion in a GROUP, do this.

Go to the group, ie, HISTORY-IDENTIFICATION.

In the left hand column is a section titled DISCUSSION FORUM

Go to the bottom of that section, click on ADD A DISCUSSION

Invent a title and type it in

Type your text, add photos, etc.

Go to bottom of page, click on ADD DISCUSSION

4. PHOTOS: See the separate NOTE on photos, It explains policies and how to work the software.

5. YOUR PROFILE PAGE: Members can personalize their profile page, and their interaction with the network to a considerable degree. In the upper right hand quadrant of the screen look for a box with your name on it. Click on SETTINGS. That will take you to a new screen.

Under PROFILE you can edit anything you typed in when you joined. (You do not need to use your real name.) You can choose to hide your birthdate or gender. If you don't wish to give your specific location, just give us a large city near you.

Under MY PAGE you can personalize the appearance of your profile page.

The network sends you emails about newly added content, and under EMAIL you can specify what kinds of new content you want to be notified about (or receive no emails at all).

Under PRIVACY you can specify who can view content that you add. Although I hope you will allow it all to be public. The possibility for internet searchers to see your work and your lace is what will draw visitors and new members to us. Your personal email address will never be visible to any member or non-member, except the administrators, unless you post it into a comment box

6. The EVENTS tab is for members to post exhibitions which are expected to contain lace, for teachers to post lace workshops they are giving to groups, notices about local guild lace workshops or lace days. Any member can post an event. I think it appropriate to post any event, worldwide, that will involve lace. This is to let our members from many nations to know what is going on near them, or that others might like to visit.

7. TO CONTACT MEMBERS: Clicking on a member's icon or name will take you to their profile page. Then you can post a comment on their comment wall. To send a private message to a member you must first "friend" them, and have the friend reciprocate. Then you can send an email to that person. Sending an email only works with "friends" or with me or the co-administrator. (What the software for this site calls "message" is actually a private email that only the sender and recipient can see.) The word INBOX in the box with your name on it is the link to your emails in this network.

8. SEARCH: You can search laceioli for references to some particular form, either members who mentionned it on their profile, or discussions where these words have occurred. Look at the black bar above the ioli title. The upper right hand corner has a search box that operates only on our network.

Did you know that you can search ioli members for geographical location? So, for instance, if you want to find members at Brisbane, Australia, do this. Go to MEMBERS On the left, just before the names start, is a search box. Do not type anything into the search slot. Instead click on ADVANCED SEARCH. It will take you to a new page. At the COUNTRY slot, click on the down arrow, and select the country from the list. Then type in the city name in the city slot. Instead you can type in a state, such as NSW. Then go to the bottom of that page and click on SEARCH. The program will give you a list of members who fit those criteria. Maybe you can get together and work something out. You can use this SEARCH function to find teachers in a particular geographical area.

There is also a SEARCH slot that works only on our PHOTOS. Click on PHOTOS. On the left, just above where thumbnails of the photos start, is a search slot. Type in the kind you are looking for, just one or 2 words. The software will search through titles, descriptions, and tags given to those photos for the words you typed in. It will then show you those images which had those words attached.

9. EDIT OR DELETE YOUR CONTENT that you add yourself can either be edited and corrected by you, or deleted by you.

If you decide that one of your comments isn't necessary, or contains errors (or whatever reason), look for the little x in the upper right hand corner of the comment box. Click on the x and your comment disappears forever.

For any photo that you post you can go back later and edit any description or tags that you entered when you first posted it. Click on your photo that you want to edit. Look near the top of the screen for OPTIONS. Click on OPTIONS. Click on EDIT. Make your changes, then go to the bottom of the page and click SAVE. Or you can delete the photo. Click on PHOTOS. Find your image, click on it. Then look above the picture for a button that says OPTIONS. Click on OPTIONS. Click on DELETE PHOTO. It will ask you again, to be sure. Click on YES. And it is gone.

10. LINKS AND HYPERLINKS: there are 2 ways of adding a link to a comment box, a link which is not to a photo.

When you are in a comment box type in your sentence, highlight a word that you want to use as the contact point or trigger for the link.

Open a 2nd window in your browser, go to the web address that you want to link to. Copy its url.

Go back to the 1st window. Click on the leftmost button above the comment box. It is the LINK button. A little box will pop up. Paste your copied url into the box. Save. And you will have created a hyperlink.

Having the 2 windows open is necessary, because if you move away from the page with the comment box you are working on, all the content in the box will be lost.

Of course, you can also just copy the url and paste it into the comment box, that works also. Just paste or type in the full url. The software will recognize it as an internet address by the http:// But be careful not to hit the "T" button by mistake. That wipes out anything that is not just the typed in letters--the formatting and hyperlink are wiped out.

11. PDF FILES AND WORD FILES I've just discovered that it is possible to post a pdf, jpg or gif file or a file created by WORD -- .doc or .docx -- to a discussion here on laceioli. It is possible, but only in certain places. You can upload a pdf file when you create a DISCUSSION (either in FORUM or in a GROUP such as TATTING). Any box where you can add text, if you see a paper clip icon, that is the icon for uploading a file. You treat it as you would to create a link. There is a 5mb limit on the size of the file (set by the software, I can't change it). Please be aware that a pdf file is preferable to doc or docx, because it is compressed and takes up less storage space.

Go to the group where you want to upload the file, or to FORUM and start a new discussion. (It only works when you created a new discussion, or edit one that you yourself have started.)

Look near the top for the OPTIONS button. Click it. Click EDIT

Click the paperclip icon.

Browse your computer, select a file and click OPEN. You may have to wait many seconds while the gear is turning. When the gear stops click OK. Then SAVE the discussion.

And that is it.

12. ACTIVITY FEED: There are 2 ways to be aware of newly posted content on our network.

a. You can set your own preferences about emails that the software sends you. Look in the upper right hand corner for the box with your name on it. Click on SETTINGS. On the new screen look in the upper left hand quadrant. Click on EMAILS. You can tell the software what kinds of things you wanted to be notified about. Don't forget to click on SAVE.

b. On the opening page of our network, called MAIN, the center column, beginning near the top of the screen, is a list of the most recent comments, photos etc that have been added. (This is called an ACTIVITY FEED.) I have it set so that just about every kind of significant new content will be echoed there (with just a few words, so you can see what it is about). Then you can decide which elements you want to see in full. I have it set to show the 20 most recent additions. But if you go to the bottom of the ACTIVITY FEED. click on the MORE button to see more than just the 20 most recent. By looking at the activity feed every time you visit, you can be sure not to miss something you are interested in.